Post Your Granted, Assumed or Desired Arms

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I suspect the French heralds chose the word "sinople" to represent the colour green merely to confuse English heralds

Prior to the 14th century it seems that the French used sinople to represent red. At about the time they adopted gules for red, furs (vair) were becoming more common in French armory and the word sinople was conveniently repurposed to replace "vert" to avoid confusion between vert and vair in both written and spoken French blazons. Must have driven the English heralds nuts.

It also lays a trap for armourists who approach French blazons and assume that a "lyonne couchant sinople" refers to a green lion, when indeed it may refer to a red lion if the arms are of sufficient antiquity...